EXCLUSIVE: Bojana Novakovic is full of surprises. Not long after she filmed her scene-stealing role in the second season of the Apple TV series Your Friends & Neighbours, the award-winning<\/p>\n
actor also quietly welcomed a baby.<\/p>\n
Even though her guest role as Jon Hamm\u2019s billionaire foil came out of the blue for viewers, the Serbian-born Australian actor and activist tells Stellar that there was no great secrecy involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey offered it to me, so there isn\u2019t really a dramatic story behind it. I guess they liked my work,\u201d says Novakovic \u2013 who\u2019s also known to local audiences for the 2021-2023 Binge drama series Love Me. <\/p>\n
\u201cJon remembered me from years ago when something I wrote was offered to him, and he turned it down. It was an insane parody about a sexist, narcissistic journalist making a feminist show for TV. I\u2019m not surprised he said no \u2026 but I was very surprised he remembered it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Describing Hamm as \u201cfunny, incredibly intelligent, a really astute script analyst, and an exceptionally caring scene partner\u201d, Novakovic says the Mad Men star\u2019s leadership on the dark comedy crime drama set a tone that made her feel instantly welcome. <\/p>\n
Showrunner Jonathan Tropper also allowed Novakovic to bring a little of herself to the performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wanted me to use my [Australian] accent, along with Serbian, which was a really interesting element of the character,\u201d she explains. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m of the breed who believes billionaires shouldn\u2019t exist, and in doing the reading and research for the piece, it was an interesting challenge to empathise with the role.\u201d<\/p>\n
Novakovic has plenty of experience sharing screens with enduring Hollywood actors, from Keanu Reeves in the 2012 indie film Generation Um \u2026 to Margot Robbie in the 2020 Harley Quinn action comedy Birds Of Prey. <\/p>\n
But she insists any lessons on staying power haven\u2019t been found on film sets. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve learnt them from my parents and from the farmers I work with in Serbia [Novakovic advocates for those threatened by a proposed lithium mining project in Serbia], people who have not only farmed their whole lives but come from generations of farmers,\u201d she says. \u201cLongevity isn\u2019t about one life; it\u2019s about legacy, DNA and generations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Legacy drives much of her work. Alongside her Master\u2019s in Sustainable Development, the 44-year-old is putting the finishing touches on a documentary, The Forbidden Aunt, which is set to premiere this month at the Sarajevo Film Festival before screening at the Adelaide Film Festival in October. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about four generations of women in my family from rural Serbia and how generational trauma and sexual violence shaped the identities of women across those generations,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n
Novakovic immigrated to Australia from Serbia when she was seven years old, a displacement that shaped her. \u201cI didn\u2019t really have friends growing up and I wasn\u2019t particularly confident,\u201d she recalls. <\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until her parents enrolled her at The McDonald College, a Sydney school specialising in creative and performing arts, that everything clicked.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only did my confidence change, but my academic performance improved as well,\u201d she recalls. <\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, acting came out of that necessity. I needed somewhere I felt like I belonged.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite her global career, Novakovic still spends about half the year in Serbia, where she has helped build one of Europe\u2019s largest environmental and anti-colonial movements, actively campaigning against corporate mining and government corruption. <\/p>\n
\u201cSerbia isn\u2019t somewhere I came from,\u201d she explains. \u201cIts people, and my friends and family there, are central to my life and my future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her fierce advocacy for human rights and bodily autonomy informs how she views the world, particularly while working in the US against its turbulent political backdrop, where she says the systematic stripping of reproductive rights is a symptom of a much larger crisis. <\/p>\n
And, she warns, Australia isn\u2019t immune to these global shifts, either.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything we fail to confront \u2018over there\u2019 eventually arrives on our own doorstep. Rights aren\u2019t permanent.<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralia has its own profound human rights issues that don\u2019t receive nearly the same attention because they\u2019re tied to our colonial history and normalised. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m deeply concerned about reproductive rights, but I\u2019m equally concerned about Indigenous children being imprisoned, children being tried as adults, the lack of Indigenous justice, and the ongoing absence of Treaty.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it comes to her own motherhood journey, the actor draws a hard line. <\/p>\n
You won\u2019t see photos of her partner or child, and she firmly refuses to offer parenting advice or participate in interviews that ask her to open up about being a working mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cQuite frankly,\u201d she tells Stellar, \u201cI\u2019m tired of celebrities and actors offering advice about parenting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to participate in normalising a culture where someone who sat through hair and make-up, lost all their baby weight within weeks, and was back at work after a gruelling birth \u2013 that person being me \u2013 is somehow presented as worth taking advice from. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s useful to women, and I don\u2019t want to contribute to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Novakovic also notes that her privileged experience as an actor doesn\u2019t represent reality for most women. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy pregnancy and birthing experience, although gruelling like they all are, is highly individual and not a normal experience,\u201d she points out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that sharing it will cause people to compare themselves rather than help anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
So while she\u2019s more than happy to chat about motherhood with friends, family, or even strangers on the street, Novakovic won\u2019t do it for a media sound bite. <\/p>\n
Asked how she\u2019d teach her child to \u201chandle it all\u201d should they face a similarly whirlwind year of filming, activism and a new baby, she offers a characteristic dose of perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think that life is about handling everything,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
\u201cMost of it isn\u2019t actually handleable. I\u2019m not handling it all. I just keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n